Zander sez "Screw the nano"
posted September 26th 2005 2:00PM
The ancient adage is so true: Haters keep on hatin', and Motorola CEO Ed Zander is coming across as something of a
HATR himself lately. Despite Moto's celebrated (and some would say anticlimactic) joint release of the
ROKR musicphone with Jobs and Co., Zander's got no
love for Apple's other new product, the (ROKR thunder-stealing)
iPod nano. At a Churchill Club leadership
seminar this past Friday, tucked in among his whimsical anecdotes of taking over the helm at Moto, came this royal
nano-burn, "Screw the nano. What the hell does the nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs?" In one
sense Zander is exactly right: studies show that people
listen to exactly 375 songs on their portable devices. But in another, more important sense, Zander is completely
and totally off the mark: nanos have a great buzz going, while his beloved ROKR has people saying, well,
other things. Then again, we've got word from
anonymous sources at Moto that Zander's commentary may be more reflective of needing to blow off steam in frustration
over Jobs', shall we say, hostile attitude towards both Verizon and Moto during the development of the ROKR, as opposed
to interpreting it as a "640k ought to be enough for anyone" kind of line. Yeah, we know how the pressure builds under
the hot lights of the press, but it's doubtful that this particular bit of PR is gonna do much to improve
relations.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
who needs 1,000 songs when you can have a hundred on a low quality phone?!?! Jobs is a moron. Really, I'm going to go play music on my 3D0 now.
i have over 2000 songs so the nanos already out for me.
better question: who listens to only 100 songs?
Ed Zander is the new Michael Dell
Good luck to Motorola.. Thats really a bad comment coming from a CEO.
Zander's an idiot. He assumes that people who buy iPods actually know something about technology. Whether they do or not is irrelevant. What's relevant is they don't have to know anything about a nano's technological capability -- and I'd bet most don't care.
Steve Jobs, on the other hand, knowingly designed a computer (you might remember the Apple MacIntosh?) and an MP3 player (you know, the iPod?) for people who know nothing about technology but want something that works and is simple to operate.
Motorola, on the other hand, designs and sells a lot of things that don't work particularly well (don't believe me, just cruise the forums covering cell phones and you'll see just how much people "love" their RAZRs and other Moto-stuff).
The lesson for me is Jobs & Co. listens to their customers and gives them what they want while Motorola assumes they are smarter than their customers.
Zander will live to eat his words, but that's not what I want to talk about. The HATR thing is just above and beyond. Just too good.
-evb
mp3.com
"Who listens to 1,000 songs?"
Your target audience, you freakin' tool.
So after millions of iPods have been sold, the CEO of Motorola questions the viability of the product. He also questions the carriers who sell his product ("other countries with more advanced mobile phone networks") and the US customers who are not buying his phones (other countries with more...savvy users").
I get it! Your product does not suck, your competition, the carriers and your customers suck.
Who listens to 1000 songs? Did he mean at the same time? What kind of stupid ass question is that? I'd love to see the look on his face once he gets an email directly from steve.jobs@apple.com with only that comment surrounded by quotes in the body of the email. Man, that just goes to show you how outside of reality these dumb ass CEOs live.
Boy is he BITR..!
If the whole iPod craze has passed him by, why put iTunes on his new phone..?
Agree with #8 completely.
Where can I buy the Motorola HATR?? I would so buy that phone on the name alone.
"So after millions of iPods have been sold, the CEO of Motorola questions the viability of the product."
Well, it just proves that he reads the comments on every iPod-related story that Engadget posts!
I bet the ROKR doesn't scratch as easily as the nano!
Ya know, he's right, I only have 999 songs on my iPod, oh, and a copy of my music folder for when my new Mac arrives, and my resume, and other various files. So, I guess I am a moron, not him or the people who work for him that have released what is probably one of the more underwhelming products I've ever seen. Artificial 100 song limit anyone? I'm of the opinion that he's pissed at Jobs because this phone did exactly what Steve wanted it to do TANK, and then when the actual Apple phone comes out people will go nuts for it.
I can't even fit all my songs on my 60GB iPod. That guy is a freakin looser!
Way to endear yourself to your target customer, fool.
For a second I thought he was saying "screw nanotechnology" in which I thought he had a better thing that nanites. Turns out he wasn't talking about that at all, such a dissapointment! lol
I played with the ROKR at BestBuy over the weekend, and the interface is so slow that it was painful to use. I'm a big fan of the new Black Razr, but that thing was terrible. Even my semi-old timer Nokia 6620 is easier to use, though I'd have to buy a bigger MMC and a stereo adapter to use it as an MP3 player.
It's a fair bet that the ROCKR's third-rateness wasn't Steve Jobs' fault. I'm no Nono fan either, but I know whch one I would pick. I feel sorry for Apple that their name is attached to such a shite product.
I'm amazed the guy actually said "screw the nano" in public. What a fucking DUMBASS.
Didn't motorola have its own MP3 player a while ago? hmmm. i wonder what happened to it: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000463020872/ for those of you who care.
oh wait. that also had 5gb...isnt that enough for...1000 songs? ZNDR is a LOSR.
Ed Zander of Moto: "...who listens to 1000 songs?"
Ivan Seidenberg of Verizon: "Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house? The customer has come to expect so much."
NUCKING FUTS! Behold the state of corporate governance in America, I bet you Zander and Seidenberg knows more about the minutia of their quarterly earnings than their own product lines...
/me glances at his iPod's About screen.
5293 songs.
If I could only fit 1000 128kbit AAC songs on my music player I'd have to resync it constantly to keep a fresh selection of music on there. And I couldn't load up a specific artist on a whim, cause there isn't space to store an album from every artist I listen to in "1000 songs".
An attitude like this explains why Motorola is the pusher of mediocre products. Please, dude, the RAZR ain't small, and 1000 songs ain't a lot. The grapes are especially sour at Motorola's HQ, it seems.
Zander only has himself to blame. The obvious thing to do was make a RAZR that was iTunes compatible and make it the lead phone in the iTunes compatible phone family. But no, Moto insisted on sticking it in that crappy unit instead.
Give the customer what they want, Motorola. If you fail to do that (again), perhaps you should spin off your mobile phone business like you did with Freescale since Freescale was unable to make processors that your customers (like Apple, and indirectly, the Mac users) wanted. Then again, you'd be left to making third rate DVR units and uninspiring cable modems for the cablecos like Comcast.
I suspect this was payback for Motorola not putting out PowerPC chips fast enough for Apple. Jobs probably praised the ROKR to the Moto. executives, while secretly knowing it would die. Given Jobs alleged-ego, if he really liked the ROKR, it would have a more iPod-like name. But this failure will be forever known as the Motorolo ROKR.
Dear Motorola,
Please get your own house in order before you start attacking more successful companies than your own.
You produce the worst user interface this side of Lotus Notes and your address book design apparently predates the Roman Empire. Your phones are largely buggy (MPx220) or don't even make it to mass market (MPx).
You managed to sucker people into buying the RAZR, but how much repeat business do you expect to get now that everyone has got over the "wow" factor and actually have to put up with your wretched creations day-to-day?
Yours,
Sanity.
hey ZANDR, you big baby, you sound like a LOSR and WHINR
That guy should not take photos...
ac:
Thanks for that link back to the Motorola m500. I just Froogled it, and it's $139 for 5gb. Honestly, iPod LOVR that I am, I would seriously consider picking up one of those at that price. Replacable battery, nice size, not too ugly, FM tuner. Hmmm.
Though it's useful for marketing, "a 1000 songs" is inaccurate for many of us.
For the past 2-3 years, I've listened to audiobooks and podcasts more frequently than actual songs. An audiobook can take up the space of 30-50 songs.
Personally, I prefer measurements in GB, and my iPod 60GB isn't going anywhere as a result of the effeminate Nano!
Motorola embodies everything that is wrong with the electronics industry.
I think he feels threatened by the nano. It should have been the iTunes phone.
-- Elias
Motorola claimed that "screw nano" was a joke
http://www.betanews.com/article/Motorola_Screw_Nano_Comment_a_Joke/1127763247